‘Blood-Soaked’ Eyes: NASA’s Webb, Hubble Examine Galaxy Pair - UNIVERSE

Stare deeply at these galaxies. They appear as if blood is pumping through the top of a flesh-free face. The long, ghastly “stare” of their searing eye-like cores shines out into the supreme cosmic darkness.

It’s good fortune that looks can be deceiving.

These galaxies have only grazed one another to date, with the smaller spiral on the left, cataloged as IC 2163, ever so slowly “creeping” behind NGC 2207, the spiral galaxy at right, millions of years ago.

The pair’s macabre colors represent a combination of mid-infrared light from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope with visible and ultraviolet light from NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope.

Image A: Galaxies IC 2163 and NGC 2207 (Webb and Hubble Image)

This observation combines mid-infrared light from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope, and ultraviolet and visible light from NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope. The galaxies grazed one another millions of years ago. The smaller spiral on the left, cataloged as IC 2163, passed behind NGC 2207, the larger spiral galaxy at right.

NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI

Look for potential evidence of their “light scrape” in the shock fronts, where material from the galaxies may have slammed together. These lines represented in brighter red, including the “eyelids,” may cause the appearance of the galaxies’ bulging, vein-like arms.

The galaxies’ first pass may have also distorted their delicately curved arms, pulling out tidal extensions in several places. The diffuse, tiny spiral arms between IC 2163’s core and its far left arm may be an example of this activity. Even more tendrils look like they’re hanging between the galaxies’ cores. Another extension “drifts” off the top of the larger galaxy, forming a thin, semi-transparent arm that practically runs off screen.

Image B: Galaxies IC 2163 and NGC 2207 (MIRI Image)

This mid-infrared image from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope excels at showing where the cold dust, set off in white, glows throughout these two galaxies, IC 2163 and NGC 2207. The telescope also helps pinpoint where stars and star clusters are buried within the dust. These regions are bright pink. Some of the pink dots may be extremely distant active supermassive black holes known as quasars.

NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI

Both galaxies have high star formation rates, like innumerable individual hearts fluttering all across their arms. Each year, the galaxies produce the equivalent of two dozen new stars that are the size of the Sun. Our Milky Way galaxy only forms the equivalent of two or three new Sun-like stars per year. Both galaxies have also hosted seven known supernovae in recent decades, a high number compared to an average of one every 50 years in the Milky Way. Each supernova may have cleared space in their arms, rearranging gas and dust that later cooled, and allowed many new stars to form.

To spot the star-forming “action sequences,” look for the bright blue areas captured by Hubble in ultraviolet light, and pink and white regions detailed mainly by Webb’s mid-infrared data. Larger areas of stars are known as super star clusters. Look for examples of these in the top-most spiral arm that wraps above the larger galaxy and points left. Other bright regions in the galaxies are mini starbursts — locations where many stars form in quick succession. Additionally, the top and bottom “eyelid” of IC 2163, the smaller galaxy on the left, is filled with newer star formation and burns brightly.

These are two views of the same scene, each showing two overlapping spiral galaxies, IC 2163 at left and NGC 2207 at right. The Hubble Space Telescope’s ultraviolet- and visible-light observation is at left, and the James Webb Space Telescope’s mid-infrared light observation is at right. In Hubble’s image, the star-filled spiral arms glow brightly in blue, and the galaxies’ cores in orange. Both galaxies are covered in dark brown dust lanes, which obscures the view of IC 2163’s core at left. In Webb’s image, cold dust takes center stage, casting the galaxies’ arms in white. Areas where stars are still deeply embedded in the dust appear pink. Other pink regions may be objects that lie well behind these galaxies, including active supermassive black holes known as quasars. Turn your eye toward the bottom right of the Webb image. The largest, brightest pink region that glimmers with eight prominent diffraction spikes is a mini starburst — a location where many stars are forming in quick succession. The same region in the Hubble image appears as a bright blue cluster of stars. The lace-like holes in the white spiral arms of Webb’s images are often where supernovae exploded long ago. In the same regions, Hubble shows these areas are now populated with newer stars. The black areas to upper right and lower left of the Hubble image do not contain any data.

By: NASA Webb Mission Team, Goddard Space Flight Center

Source: ‘Blood-Soaked’ Eyes: NASA’s Webb, Hubble Examine Galaxy Pair - NASA Science